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With St. Patricks coming and all'

2K views 23 replies 6 participants last post by  pmflyfisher 
#1 ·
Lighten your hearts lads for a Yeats poem.


The Fisherman
by W.B. Yeats

Although I can see him still,
The freckled man who goes
To a grey place on a hill
In grey Connemara clothes
At dawn to cast his flies,
It's long since I began
To call up to the eyes
This wise and simple man.
All day I'd looked in the face
What I had hoped 'twould be
To write for my own race
And the reality;
The living men that I hate,
The dead man that I loved,
The craven man in his seat,
The insolent unreproved,
And no knave brought to book
Who has won a drunken cheer,
The witty man and his joke
Aimed at the commonest ear,
The clever man who cries
The catch-cries of the clown,
The beating down of the wise
And great Art beaten down.

Maybe a twelvemonth since
Suddenly I began,
In scorn of this audience,
Imagining a man,
And his sun-freckled face,
And grey Connemara cloth,
Climbing up to a place
Where stone is dark under froth,
And the down-turn of his wrist
When the flies drop in the stream;
A man who does not exist,
A man who is but a dream;
And cried, 'Before I am old
I shall have written him one
Poem maybe as cold
And passionate as the dawn.


Image of Connemara, County Galway, Ireland
 

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#2 ·
What great timing, I was cleaning out my personal closet on Saturday which the wife has allowed me to keep as my personal space, fishing, books, work stuff etc...

Lo and behold there was my college english poems book.

Leafed through it and read a couple of Yeats poems

Don' think I have seen this once though.

St. Patricks day is here which means serious steelhead season.

Had my best day ever on St Paddies day in a michigan snowstorm in 1983. What a grand day it was. Thirty degrees snowed all day, had Shapton's Run all to myself with about 30 fresh michigan steelhead. Hooked 15+ landed three.

Was frozen, after one of the ones I lost as I was beaching him did one last run, popped my leader as I was leaning back to bring
him onto the beach. I fell right into a black michigan muck area. Did you ever see black michigan muck face down at thirty degree
temperatures ? Well I did.

Covered with mud and water, started icing up, but the steelhead were still there alone with me. Did I stop fishing, no way, continued for another couple of hours, until I could not stand it any longer.

Went to motel and town laundry, changed clothes and in 2 hours back on the river for St Paddies day evening bite.

What a grand St. Paddies day it was ! :devil: :devil:
 
#5 · (Edited)
No Hawkeye meant the verse was hardcore;)

Especially this passage:

And the down-turn of his wrist
When the flies drop in the stream;
A man who does not exist,
A man who is but a dream;



Talking wrist technique. For those who think I'm getting soft posting verses on the site I can offer this. As a player of the music I haunt the pubs around Boston for the sessions. And every year starting around 2-3 weeks before St. Pats there is this phenomenon. People start coming out in droves to decompress from winter. It ramps up to a huge blow out of steam around THE day. Quite a busy time. And believe it or not a fair ammount of flyfishing is discussed. Hey, take heart, herring have been spotted on Marthas Vineyard.

Lefty
 
#6 ·
Lefty,

I have been through hard Boston winters several times while there in business, visiting college girl friends, etc.. and I can understand their winter withdrawal position. Remember the winter of 1978 ? I was stranded twice that winter in Northeaster blizzards up there.

Missed St Paddies day there three years ago by a few days while there on business, but did have a grand time the "Ye Olde Union Oyster House" at the bar eating lobsters and beer celebrating my consultant friends birthday during another Boston snow storm.

I do understand the situation and put Boston up as possibly my most favorite U.S. city.

Cheers,

Hal
 
#7 ·
Oh ya, know the Union Oyster House. I worked there in the kitchen for a stint. Learned a lot about fish and seafood saute there. Did you know they have there own bakery on site? A true rarity in kitchens outside of the fancy hotels.
Boston is my favorite city too. I'm biased of course, but I've been to a few others in my time...Worcester, Lewiston Me., I evan went to Fall River once.;) How about Mike's Pastry in the North End? Yowza! Went there last Sat.

Lefty
 
#8 ·
I know Joe Milano and Jim Mallin(sp?) over at the Union Oyster House very well. I was there Sam Adams salesman for 6 years.

Lefty, let me know when you'll be in town for a session. I know all of the Guinness Import Co.'s representatives and most of the Irish contingent in town. I'll buy you a few pints....

~Mark Doogue
 
#9 · (Edited)
Please no more talk about the Olde Oyster House. Had to go look it up ,here is the URL for it. Great sea food, atmosphere and you get an american history lesson while there. Every one should go there when they visit Boston. Check it out.

http://www.unionoysterhouse.com/

http://www.dwroth.com/american_revolutionary_war.htm

Today I had a conference call with our offices at Two International Place a few blocks from there and more memories were brought back of Beantown.

Did they ever get the Deep Tunnel project done ?


Cheers (Check out the Cheers Bar also in downtown Boston, another must see if you go there)

Hal
 
#10 ·
That's a big NO on the tunnel. I wind my way around that big hole in the ground every day.

As for Cheers, now there are two in the city. There's the old Cheers on Beacon and the new Cheers located in Faneuil Hall where Lily's used to be.

One final Union Oyster House tidbit, they were the first restaurant in the U.S. to offer toothpicks.

~Mark
 
#11 ·
Mark,

Wow that tunnel project is like the Energizer Bunny just keeps going and going. Hope its done next time I am in Boston.

Yes the history of the Oyster House is really cool. Get their guys if ever in Bean Town.

I suppose Durkin Park is still there also, another interesting restaurant. How about the No Name Restaurant still there ? I think that one may be gone though. It was down on the docks, no name of course, and had to bring your own wine/liqour. Great seafood as I recall.

Hal
 
#14 ·
Susan and Shauna are still doing well with Durgin Park and Jimmy has the No Name cranking along like it has for years....

Wait until the Modern Continental guys unearth civil war or indian artifacts and the whole project becomes an archeological dig. We'll all be paying for this hole in the ground for the rest of our natural lives.

~Mark
 
#15 ·
Mark

Dam when I was there in 1999 I intended to take my business consultant friends to the No Name, I tried to look it up (very fast had like 15 minutes to research, we were working 12 hour days etc.to meet CEO deadline) could not find it in phone book, so I took them to Oyster House and Durkin Park. We were working at Two International Place in downtown.

Next time back to Beantown the No Name will be the # 1 objective for dining.

Thanks, sounds like you have great restaurant contacts there
 
#16 ·
Couldn't find the No Name? That's the way us locals like it ;) I'll betcha Juro doesn't evan know where that one is.
Hey Mark, is there still a Daily Catch on Northern Ave.? I know there's one in the No. End. Check out the Linguini with Red or White Clam sauce served in the saute pan. They plunk the pan down in front of you. The calamari is killer too. Gotta love Beantown!
Hey stop by the Green Briar on Monday nights for the finest traditional Irish session in town. Say hi to me. I'll be holding one stringed instrument or another instead of a flyrod.

Lefty
 
#20 ·
Its here Happy St Patricks Day every one, "Top Of The Morning to You" will be going over to the annual South Side Irish Parade (see URL below) which is held in the south west Chicago suburb named Beverly, about a 15 minute drive from my home. Very large irish catholic area. Western Avenue is an old neighborhood with one irish pub after another, chicago paper said we are second in nation at 800-900K irish population, Philadelphia is first with 1 million, Boston is third with 700K-800k. That surprised me some what.

President Bush was at the down town Chicago irish parade yesterday, where the Chicago River is dyed green for the parade. Actually it always is a strong green color. Yes you can catch steelhead and salmon out of it while under the sky scrapers. It is linked to the Big Lake, only 1-2 miles to the lake.

I am 1/3 Irish and the remainder german.

Have a great St. Paddies Day !!

http://members.aol.com/SSIPC/

:smokin: :smokin:
 
#21 ·
St. Patricks day is so many different things to so many people. It always amazes me how big it is in my neck of the woods. Very deep roots touched here. And of course the real story of Patrick "the sinner" as he referred to himself, very moving.
I'm off to the pub to play 4 sets of Irish tunes. Fun.

Slainte

Lefty
 
#22 ·
Lefty, let me know where you are playing some time and I'll make an effort to attend the session.

To give you an idea of how my day went, the first round I ordered totaled 30 Guinness pints..........

I'm glad it's over and I am home safely. Safe home to all others that tipped a pint today.

~Mark
 
#23 ·
Still have vivid memories of days long ago as a 17 year old visiting Southie on St Patrics day. Green beer at local taverns, crowds of Irish and Polish decendents. Then getting the evil eye from the pubs locals when they realized you were not a local and that the off color remarks you just made about Southie were not yours to make. Whipped with a broken off car antena and hit on the side of the head with some guys crutch and out the tavern door on hands and knees left a life long fondness for all my friends in Southie on St Patrics day.
OC
 
#24 ·
Got to be careful on St. Paddies Day

OC

Never had something like that happen to me on St. Paddies day but once in NYC my friend and I almost got into it over a couple of babes we picked up. Seems he wanted the one I ended up with (the nice looking one), amazing what happens when a supposed friend gets to much liquor in them on St Paddies or any other day.
These days I stay away from alcohol consumption of any magnitude and places where people indulge in that pursuit.

Much safer that way.
 
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